Celebrate the Janmashtami fervour

Few hours from now, the city will be drenched in festivities, as devotees look forward to celebrating Janmashtami on Monday. The temples will shine with interesting and innovative themes and decoration. The Iskcon Temple has come up with a ‘Krishna Village Theme Park’ to introduce the relevance of festival to children in a fun-filled manner, while Chinmaya Mission will celebrate Janmashtami on September 2 as per South Indian Panchang. Shree Bhagwat Vidyapith, Sola will hold traditional and cultural programmes, while Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul will have beautiful hindolas and celebrate ‘Nandotsav’.

Besides these celebrations, there will be the ‘regular’ matki fod, aarti and prasad. Iskcon Temple will kickstart celebrations from this afternoon, all the way up to September 4. The Krishna Village Theme Park idea germinated from the fact that children today do not seem to be clued into traditional festivities. The theme park idea was initiated by vice-president Vishnunam Das of Iskcon, Ahmedabad. Haresh Govind Das, Committee member of Janmashtami, says, “It is an endeavour to involve children and help them come closer to Lord Krishna and His teachings.

There will be a 20-minute film on Krishna screened here for a nominal cost. Besides this, the young ones can also indulge in magic shows, and puppet shows which will present Krishna leelas. There will be games as well, with opportunities to win prizes.” Matki fod, art and craft workshops will give an insight on the life of Krishna. Committee member Vamsibihari Das says, “We have targeted children this time because they are the future. Our culture could go extinct thanks to all the Western influences. We want them to attach feelings, love and emotions towards Krishna.”

Balloons will also be released to mark world peace in presence on religious leaders from various sects, who will address the devotees on Monday, to sensitise them towards world peace. There will be prasad, farali bhojan offered on Janmashtami, besides discourses on Krishna, maha abhishek, maha aarti, et al. Iskcon is expecting more than 1 lakh visitors and organisers have ensured proper parking facilities for them. More than 5,000 vehicles can be parked in the allotted space. Meanwhile, Chinmaya Mission will celebrate the festival tomorrow as per the South Indian Panchang. Eighteen adhyayas of The Bhagwat Gita will be chanted which will last for more than three hours. Prasad of panjiri will be offered to devotees.

They are expecting more than 1,500 devotees who will be provided with an open ground for parking. Likewise, Shree Bhagwat Vidyapith, Sola, has only one thing on its mind — Krishna Janmotsav. Rushiraj Vyas, an official, says, “There will be a bhajan sandhya, besides other traditional and cultural programmes. And of course, how can a celebration be complete in Gujarat with a few rounds of garba? We are expecting visitors in lakhs, and there will be at least 25,000 devotees present at night during Krishna’s birth.” They have a huge campus for parking. Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul has planned to decorate hindolas using handmade handicraft like rakhis, made by women. They are expecting close to 3,000 devotees.

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